Our day began with the Discovery III Paddlewheel boat tour on the Chena River. Now this isn't some little puddle-about boat. This is a 4 deck, bring on your tour buses by the dozens boat. I'll refer to the tour bus persons as "The Hoard". Peggy and I sat in the parking lot after getting our tickets and counted at least 15 tour buses of people who were all destined to ride the same boat we were. Wow! (Yes, I know I've just slighted some of you who have done the bus tour thing. And, good for you for having done so. But, I can not see me doing a bus tour thing unless I really get desperate to wear a name tag badge around my neck. For this I apologize!)
I'm guessing there were nearly 1000 people who rammed, jammed, and thank you ma'am (-ed), on board the boat. However, Peggy and I were fortunate in that we happened to be in the right place at the right time. After about the 10th bus rolled in we decided we better get out of the pickup and go to the side of the building where the gang planks for boarding were. Holy cow...what a hoard of people already lined up! But where we stood was a chained off walkway. About 5 minutes before boarding began the nicest gal walks up, sets up her ticket taking materials and says, "You can start a new line right here." Right where we were standing! So, we were moved to the front of this new line of boarders!
Peggy and I made a beeline to the top deck towards the stern. Our only mistake is that we sat on the right side of the boat. As we found out after we were underway some of the demonstrations on the river were on the left side. No big deal, however.
The tour was on the Chena River and we headed upstream away from Fairbanks. One of the first demonstrations was a bush pilot who took off from the Chena River. Peggy and I have watched countless float planes take off at Anderson Lake. And, the announcer, who really did a good job, made the pilot sound like some aviation hero. Heck, Grant is at least his equal, if not better!!
Farther down stream we went past the home of Susan Butcher, who was an Iditarod race winner. She has since died, but her husband still raises and races sled dogs. He had a team of dogs hooked up to a 4 wheel ATV. And at his signal, those dogs took off pulling that ATV at a high rate of speed. They circled a small lake on the property and on his command came to a stop.
Further on we passed a rebuilt native village with a demo version of a fish wheel. It was announced that we would be coming back as we would off-load and be able to attend various explanations of native life.
The Discovery III went a short distance farther to the place where the Chena River runs into the Tanana River. The Tanana is the major drainage for the Fairbanks area. The amazing thing was to see where the 2 rivers merged. The Chena's waters are clear while the Tanana's are milky gray as it contains glacial silt. It looked like cream slowly mixing with coffee.
The captain reversed our direction to head upstream and docked us at the native village. There were three demonstrations given: native clothing, native subsistence- hunting and growing food, and fishing with fish preparation. All were done and done well by high school and college age students. I was really blown away at the native clothing demo when a woman's ornate parka was estimated to have a value of $15,000 because of the furs, beadwork, and large amount of time it took to make it!
They also had a recently caught salmon that a girl filleted and prepped for smoking. Only these salmon were not for human consumption, but for the sled dogs. Because the dogs are vital to the survival of the natives during the harsh winter, there needs to be plenty of food stored for the dogs' winter survival.
After about 45 minutes at the native village the boat's whistle blew signalling The Hoards to reboard for the ride back to the docks. Along the way the announcer talked about living in Fairbanks. Like anywhere, Alaskans are proud of where they live, and rightfully so!
Once back on land, Peggy and I drove back to our camper for lunch. I took a nap while Peggy got confirmation about our tour to the Arctic Circle tomorrow. (Yes, for 1 day, we will be a part of A Hoard.) Found out that we get picked up at our campground at 5:45 a.m. YAWN!
We then drove to downtown Fairbanks to the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center. The focus of this center is on the native cultures that lived around Fairbanks and also the influx of Anglo-saxons settling the area.
From the Visitors Center we then strolled along the Fairbanks river walk. We snapped some photos of things along the route. After we finished, we went to the Hot Licks ice cream shop out by the University of Alaska. YUM! Homemade Rocky Road ice cream was especially good on a warm day.
We then went to Pioneer Park where a variety of different effects of pioneering were on display. We saw a train car used by Warren G Harding, a huge old paddlewheel boat the Nenana, a number of older planes and aviation instrumental to the settling of Alaska, and old buildings and cabins from Fairbanks at the turn of the century.
By now we were getting a bit tired and hot, so we retreated to the camper. Ahhh...AC! After we collected ourselves and I loaded pics into iPhoto we went to dinner at the Pump House. The Pump House is the building that was used in the 1930s when gold was discovered just west of the Chena River. The pump house moved water from the river up to a nearby ridge where hydro-mining was used to wash the gold containing gravels down for extraction.
The meal was awesome! Peggy had the grilled salmon, and I the grilled halibut. OMG was it ever good! And of course, when the desserts were presented we just couldn't say no. Yes, we came back to the camper overstuffed!
What a day! We are weary, but we have no regrets. We look forward to tomorrow and crossing the 66° 33ʹ latitude. Please, don't pinch me!!
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